“Bold and intelligently perceptive. Provocative and gripping.”
—IndieWire
—IndieWire
Co-presented by Cinema Tropical
Junior, a nine-year-old boy living in a bustling Caracas tenement with his widowed mother and younger brother, believes he has pelo malo—“bad hair,” a term widely applied to naturally curly ethnic hair—and tries to straighten it so he can look like a popular singer in his school photo. His unemployed yet overworked mother suspects her son is gay, but Grandma is more accepting, teaching Junior to dance to one of her favorite 60s rock ‘n’ roll tunes. Writer-director Mariana Rondón grounds her film in the cultural realities of working-class Venezuela, finding warmth and humor between mother and son even as the uncertainties of pre-adolescence threaten to pull them apart, in a feature that won the Golden Shell (Best Film) at the 2013 San Sebastian Film Festival.
Junior, a nine-year-old boy living in a bustling Caracas tenement with his widowed mother and younger brother, believes he has pelo malo—“bad hair,” a term widely applied to naturally curly ethnic hair—and tries to straighten it so he can look like a popular singer in his school photo. His unemployed yet overworked mother suspects her son is gay, but Grandma is more accepting, teaching Junior to dance to one of her favorite 60s rock ‘n’ roll tunes. Writer-director Mariana Rondón grounds her film in the cultural realities of working-class Venezuela, finding warmth and humor between mother and son even as the uncertainties of pre-adolescence threaten to pull them apart, in a feature that won the Golden Shell (Best Film) at the 2013 San Sebastian Film Festival.
“Bold and intelligently perceptive. Provocative and gripping.”
—IndieWire
—IndieWire
UPCOMING Screenings
RUNNING TIME
93min
VENUE
FORMAT
DCP
LANGUAGE
In Spanish with English subtitles
TICKET INFORMATION
General Admission: $17
Members: $8.50
Please note: A $2 handling fee per ticket will be added to your order.
Leadership support for
BAM’s strategic initiatives provided by:
Leadership support for
BAM Access Programs provided by
the Jerome L. Greene Foundation
Leadership support for
BAM programming provided by:
Leadership support for
BAM Film provided by
The Thompson Family Foundation
Major support for programs in
the Lepercq Cinema is provided by
The Lepercq Charitable Foundation
